Ad Hoc Committee chairperson suggests MPs may push for reform of Parliament's rules

While many may be anticipating the return of SAPS KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi and National Commissioner General Fannie Masemola to Parliament’s Ad Hoc Committee, the chairperson insists that they are not looking for a specific outcome with their reappearance.

In Monday's meeting, the Ad Hoc Committee of Parliament, investigating allegations by Mkhwanazi, addressed housekeeping matters, including rescheduling appearances for Masemola and Mkhwanazi.

With the rescheduling of Masemola and Mkhwanazi, the committee believed it was more reasonable for the police officials to appear last before the committee rather than this week, since they were the ones who testified at the beginning of it last year.

Speaking on the sidelines of Thursday's hearing, committee Chairperson, Soviet Lekganyane, said that they are being guided by their terms of reference and are “not looking for any specific outcome” when the SAPS members appear before them. 

“We are guided by our terms of reference and whether the evidence that has been presented here satisfies the terms of reference. We will then go to Parliament and say, 'we have listened to the evidence of the witnesses that came before us, and this is what we are now presenting before you', and these are the recommendations that we are making,” he said.

“You have heard it, it is not me. Some generals, when we ask them, ‘Are there corrupt officials within the SAPS?’, and you saw what their answer was.”

The chairperson said that there is no way they can ignore “the compelling need for reform” of the law enforcement system. He said there are questions of law and policy that have been exposed, including Parliament’s own rules.

“(Rules such as) the powers that the committee has, composition of committees, who you remember, we had to deal with questions like where, for instance, a member is mentioned in the proceedings, what becomes the position of the committee? It's not there in the rules of Parliament,” Lekganyane said.

Lekganyane emphasised the need for a comprehensive review and revision of Parliament's rules, stating that the proceedings have highlighted several key questions. These include:

• Interface between committees: Clarifying the distinction and relationship between standing and portfolio committees.
• Powers of Ad Hoc Committees: Defining the authority of ad hoc committees, especially when joint standing committees (like Defence and Intelligence) are already addressing the matters.
• Hierarchy of committees: Determining whether an ad hoc committee functions as a “super committee” of Parliament.
• Recourse for other committees: Establishing what recourse a portfolio or ad hoc committee has in such situations.

He indicated that recommendations addressing these procedural issues would be submitted to the Office of the Speaker to ensure Parliament is better “enabled” going forward.

Lekganyane explained that what follows the testimonies will be a two-way process, when the evidence leaders will come and present an overview of the evidence that would have been presented before the committee. 

“The committee secretariat will also present its own report of what it would have captured. Committee members will go into discussions and deliberations on the overview and the report, and if there are additions, subtractions, or comments to make, they will do that. 

“And then, we will go into the process of adopting the report. If the report is in excess of 100 pages or 500 pages, then it means we must go through the report paragraph by paragraph, page by page, until we arrive at the last full stop,” he said.

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